Buccaneers fire head coach Lovie Smith after two seasons

The Buccaneers (6-10) tripled their victory total from a year ago, and the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft was the biggest reason why. Smith is one of the better veteran head coaches in the league, and the Buccaneers are making a big mistake by letting him walk away.

Smith coached the Chicago Bears from 2004-2012, and has a career record of 89-87 as head coach.

“After careful consideration, we informed Lovie that we have chose to make a change”. Still, disappointment over a lack of success prompted the organization to do “what is necessary to give our fans the winning team they deserve”. The speediness with which the Bucs let Lovie go suggests they may have a replacement in mind, though for now all we know is general manager Jason Licht will lead the search for a new coach and offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter will get to interview for the job. In three of Smith’s nine seasons the Bears made the playoffs, reaching Super Bowl XLI in the 2006 season and the NFC Championship game in the 2010 campaign.

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton speaks during a news conference at the NFL football training facility in Metairie, La., Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016.

Despite many saying at the start of the season that they’d be happy to see the Bucs win six games this season, the level of expectation changed once the team reached that mark 12 games in and lost out.

Payton does not have an extension – at least, not yet.

Though Smith didn’t have excellent results during two seasons in Tampa Bay, he had a proven track record of success.

“I’m just not ready to talk about it”, Banks said. He took over a team beginning a rebuilding process.

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